My web designer registered my domain. Is that a problem?

It depends on whose name is on the registration. Look your domain up with ICANN Lookup or ask your registrar. If the registrant is your designer or their company, ask them to change it to you. A provider can manage your domain for you, but the registration should be in your name.

Do I own my website’s code?

It depends on your contract. Many providers, including us, keep ownership of code and layout systems they use across many clients and give each client a permanent license. That’s normal. What matters is that the license is permanent and lets you keep running and editing your site if you leave.

What happens to my email if I change web providers?

Business email usually runs through a separate email service connected to your domain through DNS settings. As long as you control the domain and those settings move with it, your email keeps working. Make sure the email account itself is in your name too.

Can my provider refuse to give me my domain?

Domain transfers are governed by ICANN’s Transfer Policy, which requires registrars to give the registrant the code needed to move a domain and lists the limited reasons a registrar can deny a transfer. Disputes with a web provider are a contract matter, which is why written terms matter. Ours say your domain is always yours.

What should a handoff include?

At a minimum: a copy of the site’s files ready to host, the content and design you own, control of your domain, a list of the outside services your site uses, and some help getting it running on new hosting. The provider should then remove its own access to your accounts.

Who owns your website? Domains, content, code, and handoffs

A website is several things

“My website” sounds like one thing, but it’s made of separate pieces, and each can be owned or controlled by a different person:

Piece	What it is	Who should control it
Domain name	Your address, like `yourbusiness.com`, registered through a domain registrar for a set term and renewed	You, registered in your name
DNS settings	The settings that point your domain at your website and your email	You, or your provider with your access
Hosting	The servers that deliver the site to visitors	Either, as long as the site can move
Content	Your text, photos, logo, and other material	You
Design and code	The site’s look, and the code that builds it	Set by your contract; often licensed
Accounts	Google Business Profile, analytics, Search Console, booking, payments, email	You, with access granted to your provider

Ownership problems usually start when one of these pieces ends up in someone else’s name without anyone noticing. Work out who holds each one while you and your provider are on good terms.

The domain name matters most

Your domain is the hardest piece to replace. It’s printed on your business cards and vehicle, listed on your Google Business Profile, and in every link anyone has shared. Changing it means updating all of that, and keeping redirects running on the old domain to hold on to what it built up (Google Search Central). Those redirects only work while you control the old domain.

How domain registration works

You don’t buy a domain outright. You register it for a set term through a registrar, a company accredited by ICANN (the organization that coordinates domain names), and then renew it. The person or company listed as the registrant holds the domain.

ICANN publishes what registrants are entitled to and responsible for (ICANN). You’re entitled to know who your registrar is, its terms and pricing, and how it handles registering, managing, transferring, renewing, and restoring domains. You’re responsible for keeping your contact details accurate and for answering your registrar’s inquiries within 15 days. If the registration lists someone else’s email address, those inquiries go to them.

Moving a domain

ICANN’s Transfer Policy sets the rules for moving a domain to another registrar (ICANN Transfer Policy). Your registrar must give the registrant a unique authorization code, often called an auth code or transfer code, which the new registrar needs to complete the move. A registrar can deny a transfer only for reasons the policy lists, such as evidence of fraud or a dispute over who the registrant is. Some restrictions also apply for a short period after a domain is first registered or last transferred, so a brand-new domain may not be movable right away.

ICANN revises this policy from time to time. Check its page, or ask your registrar, for the current details before you start a transfer.

What happens if a domain expires

A domain renews only if auto-renew is on and the payment goes through. For generic domains like .com, ICANN’s Expired Registration Recovery Policy sets a minimum safety net (ICANN ERRP):

The registrar must send renewal reminders, at least one roughly a month before expiration and one roughly a week before.
After expiration, the registrar must stop the domain from working at some point before the name is deleted, so your website and email can go offline while the domain still exists.
After deletion, the registry must offer a 30-day Redemption Grace Period, during which the registrant can restore the domain through the registrar.

The reminders only help if they reach you, and only the registrant can restore the domain. A domain registered to a former provider, with their email on file, can lapse without you seeing a single warning. Country-code domains, like .us, follow their own registry’s rules.

Check whose name it’s in

ICANN Lookup shows the registrar for any domain, and sometimes the registrant’s details. If it doesn’t show who the registrant is, log in to your registrar account, or ask whoever set up the domain to show you the registration. If the registrant turns out to be your web designer, a marketing agency, or a former employee, have it changed to your business now.

Content, design, and code

Content is the easiest to settle. The text, photos, and logo you provided or paid to have made should be yours, and your contract should say so.

Design and code take more care. Many web providers build sites from their own code, components, and layout systems, which they reuse across clients, so they can’t hand any one client exclusive ownership of them. What you need is a permanent license: the right to keep using, hosting, and editing your site after you stop working with the provider. Without one, the site may only be yours for as long as the business relationship lasts.

Ask these before you sign:

Once I’ve paid, who owns the design, text, and images?
If you keep ownership of the code, is my license permanent, and does it let me move the site?
If I leave, what exactly do I get, and is there a fee?

Hosting

Who runs the servers matters less than whether your site can leave them. Ask whether you’d get a copy of the site’s files that another host could run if you left. Then ask whether any part of the site only works on this provider’s systems, such as a custom admin panel or a built-in tool. Those parts may need replacing elsewhere, and you’ll want to know that before a move, not during one.

Accounts and logins

A site depends on accounts outside it: Google Business Profile, Google Search Console, analytics, your booking tool, your payment processor, your email service. You should own each of them and add your provider as a user or manager.

Then changing providers means removing one user, instead of trying to recover an account that was never in your name. Your Google Business Profile matters most here. Google’s guidelines expect one profile per business (Business Profile guidelines), and a new profile starts with none of your reviews.

What a fair handoff looks like

Handoff terms are worth reading even if you never plan to leave. A fair handoff includes:

A copy of the site’s files, ready to host somewhere else.
The content and design you own.
Your domain, moved to you or with control handed over.
A list of the outside services the site uses, so nothing breaks without warning.
Some help getting the site running on new hosting.
The provider removing its access to your accounts afterward, and you changing any passwords you shared.

Some providers, including us, charge a fee to hand a site over soon after launch. A fee like that is reasonable when it’s a clear amount, it’s in writing before you sign, and it never applies to your domain.

Check your own setup

Look up your domain on ICANN Lookup and note the registrar.
Log in to your registrar account, or find out who can. Confirm the registrant is your business and the contact email is one you read.
Note the expiration date, turn on auto-renew, and make sure the payment card on file is current.
List your accounts: Business Profile, Search Console, analytics, booking, payments, email. Confirm you’re the owner of each.
Find your contract and read the sections on ownership, licensing, termination, and handoff. If there’s no contract, ask for the terms in writing.

A checklist

Your domain is registered in your business’s name, with a contact email you check.
Auto-renew is on and the payment method is current.
You can log in to your registrar account yourself.
You know where your DNS is managed and who can change it.
Your contract says you own your content and design once paid.
Any code license is permanent and lets you move the site.
Handoff terms, including any fee, are written down before you sign.
You own your Google Business Profile, analytics, Search Console, booking, payment, and email accounts.
Your provider has user access to those accounts, not ownership.
You know what you’d get, and what it would cost, if you left tomorrow.

How we handle it

Domains we register for you are registered in your name. Your domain is always yours: we move it to you, or hand over control of it, whenever you ask, whether or not a handoff fee is owed. Once your site is paid for, you own the final design, text, and images made for it, and all the content you gave us. We keep ownership of our own tools, code, templates, and layout system, which we use for many clients, and give you a permanent license to use them as part of your site.

A care plan is optional. If you don’t choose one, or leave one early, our client agreement sets out a one-time handoff fee and what the handoff includes: your site’s files ready to host, the content and design you own, a list of the outside services the site uses, and help getting it running on new hosting. Afterward, we remove our access to your accounts and delete our copies. All of this is in writing before you sign.